Name this book? (70s/80s downbeat biowarfare thriller)

[RedTomato]

Trying to remember the name / author of a thriller I read a very long time ago.

It was a thriller about a deadly lab-created toxin or virus that midway through the book, after much drama, is finally released. *Spoiler: everyone dies*

One key strand in the book followed the people on an airplane (jumbo jet?) who gradually realise mid-atlantic (towards the end of the book) that they are the last people left alive. I think they alter course to one of the poles, but the virus / toxin is spreading to the poles too...

Any clues? It may have been called something like the Devil's Alternative or the Satan Bug - I have checked these but they are different. I've also looked up authors like Arthur Hailey or Alistair MacLean and I don't think it's them.

RT

 

[obeygiant]

Sounds like something from stephen king

 

[DeepIn2U]

Sounds like every zombie movie, game and tv show created. Sorry I have no clue.

 

[lewis82]

Sounds like something from stephen king

There is his novel The Stand but IIRC there is no plane or anything, all the action takes place in the US. It might be another one, though.

 

[184550]

The closest thing it reminds me of is 'The Andromeda Strain' by Crichton but it was published in 1969.

 

[Eldiablojoe]

Sounds like something from stephen king

The whole airplane-everyone-else-on-ground-dead thing sounds like The Langoliers.

 

[jeremy h]

OP - I see you're in the UK - so do you remember the BBC 'Survivors' from the 70's. Wow that was good... Used to scare me to death. Sounds like the book was a similar sort of deal.

The plot you describe is different but Terry Nation wrote a book based on the series back then.

 

[RedTomato]

Thanks for all your guesses - I've been checking them out.

The Andromeda strain / The Langoliers - Sorry no extraterrestrials or time rips in the book that I read.

Zombies - no, there weren't all that many zombie novels / films / games in the 70s apart from HP Lovecraft and the Living Dead series 🙂

I;ve looked at Stephen Kind and Michael Crichton bibliographies and nada there. Thanks for the guesses.

Basically it was a pretty straight airport thriller style book, without any scifi elements apart from a world destroying human-created virus.

 

[Mousse]

The closest thing it reminds me of is 'The Andromeda Strain' by Crichton but it was published in 1969.

I don't recall any planes blowing up in that book. Nor any references to the North/South Poles. I do recall that the found the cure by accident *spoiler* A crying baby was the sole survivor. It turned out his constant crying changed the pH of his blood so the virus couldn't survive. *spoiler* Now I feel the urge to reread that book.

 

[184550]

I don't recall any planes blowing up in that book. Nor any references to the North/South Poles. I do recall that the found the cure by accident *spoiler* removed *spoiler* Now I feel the urge to reread that book.

Yeah, 'TAS' was just the closest thing I could think of.